The Gatekeeper's Curse- The Complete Trilogy

by Emma L. Adams

  Another flash of light heralded the arrival of two Sidhe on horseback. As luck would have it, one of them was Lord Daival.

  “Take her,” the Erlking growled at them. “She is to be put on trial for treason.”

  “Speaking of treason,” I said, eying Lord Daival. “He conspired with her. Lord Daival did.”

  River finally released me with one hand and said, “She’s right. Lord Daival is a traitor to the Seelie Court.”

  Lord Daival looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Mistreating mortals does not make one a criminal.”

  “But conspiring against the Courts does,” River said, his voice clear. “Question him. He can’t lie.”

  Lord Daival turned on both of us, thorns springing from his hands. “You accuse me of treason?”

  “Actually,” Ivy said. “I’ve seen that before. Where did that magic come from?”

  Lord Daival scowled. “What—”

  “Heard of the princess of thorns?” Ivy asked. “How about the Lady of the Tree? Both were Vale outcasts, and stole that magic. You couldn’t have got it any other way. Lord Daival is a traitor.”

  The others moved in a blur, surrounding both Lord Daival and the Seelie Queen. I was too tired to take in their shouted arguments, while the Erlking yelled his version of the story from the opposite side of the clearing. Nobody seemed to want to go near him. Hazel and Mum conversed in whispers, probably trading Gatekeeper secrets. For once, I didn’t mind that I couldn’t hear them. Feeling River’s warm hand on my back was enough.

  “I think we’re done here,” said Mum. She sounded tired, but there was that Gatekeeper steel in her tone all the same. Her eyes were on the Erlking. “I would like to return home with my family. I trust the Summer gate has been returned to its rightful place?”

  The Erlking looked at her. I’d forgotten until now that she still hadn’t technically upheld her end of the bargain and found whatever he’d sent her to find in the Vale—but with her title gone, that vow no longer existed.

  “Yes,” the Erlking said. “I sent the gate back to where it belongs. Take care of your family. I will call for the heir when the time is right.”

  A shiver ran down my back. Hazel would be Gatekeeper next. She’d go through the Summer Gatekeeper’s trials… and I didn’t know what came next. Mum hadn’t told us, because her vow forbade it. Only the current Gatekeeper knew all their secrets. Hazel would have a hell of a lot to learn. But after all this, she was ready for it.

  I couldn’t get used to seeing Mum as human. Her forehead was smooth skin not marked by magic. Still young-looking for her age, but more vulnerable than I’d ever seen her. She and Hazel looked so much alike now. Complicated feelings rose when I looked at her, so I turned to River instead.

  “I hope Hazel’s ready for it,” I muttered. “We never did break the curse.”

  “Doesn’t mean we can’t,” said a voice I didn’t expect… Holly. She stood apart from the others, the circlet on her forehead glowing faintly. “What’s wrong with his magic?” She jerked her head at the Erlking.

  “If I told you, he’d probably have to kill you,” I said. Holly being here was blatantly against the rules of the Court, but nobody appeared to have noticed her.

  “I think you should have left her alive,” said Ivy. “The Winter Gatekeeper. She deserved to see the inside of a Sidhe’s jail.”

  “Guess that’d be fitting for someone who wanted to live forever,” I admitted. “But you can’t take your eyes off these people without them causing more mischief.”

  “Can’t argue with you there,” Ivy said.

  White light flared around us, and in the next instant, we stood at the end of Summer’s garden. The Lynn house sat at the end, flowers back in bloom, and magic hummed in the air as though it’d never left.

  Except with one difference.

  Mum finally turned away from Hazel to look at me. Then Morgan.

  Holly cleared her throat. “I should go home and make sure the Winter Gatekeeper didn’t wreck anything else. I—thank you. All of you.”

  She hurried off. All of us watched her leave to avoid looking at one another. Morgan shifted to the right like he was trying to hide behind River, who still held onto me as though afraid I’d keel over.

  Ivy spoke next. “Is there a way back to Edinburgh from here? Because I should update the council. And the Mage Lord. Before he sends his messenger into Faerie and pisses them all off again.”

  “Sure, the Path should still be there,” Hazel said. “I’ll show you.”

  “Traitor,” Morgan said under his breath.

  River released me and made to follow Ivy and Hazel, but I grabbed his arm.

  “Don’t you even think about it,” I said. “You kept me alive on her orders. Also, I’ve met your family. Mum, this is my boyfriend, River.”

  Surprise flashed in her eyes. “We’ve met.”

  “I know,” I said, “but I wanted to make it official that I don’t hold it against him for keeping secrets on your orders.”

  Oops. Apparently I still held some pent-up anger after all, even though Mum had doubtless not wanted to worry us into following her into the Vale.

  River pulled his arm free. “I should go with them. The council requires a report, and they’ll want to hear from a witness from this side.”

  “Yeah. You should know, Ivy wanted to talk to you about joining the council as well.”

  He blinked. “The council? On earth?”

  “They need half-faerie representatives, apparently.”

  He ran a hand through his hair, as though suddenly conscious of his dishevelled appearance. I probably looked worse, but I’d died. Technically.

  Mum’s attention was on Morgan. Oh no. Maybe it was for the best that River didn’t witness the fallout.

  “I’ll see you soon, Ilsa,” River said. “You can come back to Edinburgh from here, right?”

  “Yeah, I can.” Kissing him in front of Mum would be too weird, so I briefly hugged him. “Soon, I hope.”

  Because I think at least one of us is about to get disowned.

  River walked swiftly to catch up with Hazel, while I looked at Mum.

  “I could have died,” I said, drawing her attention from Morgan. “You and that damned book nearly got me killed a thousand times.”

  She didn’t say anything. Tears fell down her face. I hadn’t seen her cry since Morgan had run away from home.

  “I didn’t mean…” The words stuck in my throat. “I get that it wasn’t all your fault. Faerie vows. But really? This?” I lifted the book, my hands shaking.

  I didn’t expect her to break down. I didn’t know how to handle it. She never had, not in my lifetime. The moment she’d taken on the mantle of Gatekeeper, nothing else mattered.

  “You knew,” I said to Mum. “You knew exactly what you were handing over to me, didn’t you? Or was it all Arden?”

  “I shouldn’t have run away,” said Morgan.

  Mum looked like she didn’t know where to turn.

  Hazel walked back towards us, eyebrows raised. “Nobody’s screaming. Is it good news?”

  Mum hugged her, somehow pulling Morgan and me in as well. Nothing in our family was simple or easy. Words weren’t adequate. They couldn’t encompass years lost or promises broken, or impossible vows, or ancient gods. Under everything, we were human. Whatever the Sidhe did to us, whichever talismans we claimed, it’s what we’d always be. Human. Mortal. Not lesser. Not better. Just… us.

  “Tell me what happened,” Mum said, her voice hoarse, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

  It took some time to get the story out. Or parts of it. I still didn’t know everything about the years Morgan had been gone, nor while I’d been away. Nor how long Mum had wandered through the Vale alone, looking for something that might not even exist.

  “I didn’t want you to have to do this so early,” she said to Hazel, when we’d moved from the garden into the living room.

  “You didn’t have to give up y
our circlet.” Hazel shrugged one shoulder, leaning back on the sofa. “We Lynns have the self-sacrificing thing down, right? Ilsa’s still the expert at that. She freaking died.”

  “I know,” she said, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “I didn’t know about the book. I only knew it existed because of the bird… where is he, anyway?”

  “Dead,” I said. “It was his magic in this book.”

  By the time I got to the part about the gods, she looked about ready to faint. Morgan continued to lurk near the living room door like he planned to make a quick exit.

  “I knew of the Ancients,” Mum said softly. “I didn’t know the Sidhe took their power.”

  “Pretty sure there isn’t anything the Sidhe haven’t tried to take,” said Morgan.

  “They’re not so keen on mortality,” I commented. “Pity. The world behind the gates of death… it’s really not that scary.”

  “Change is what they fear the most,” Mum said. “That much is obvious.”

  I thought of the Erlking in his empty clearing, the destructive magic inside him kept under control. He could destroy so much with that power, yet chose not to. I could live a thousand years and never understand the Sidhe. As for their gods… maybe I understood a little of why they’d been exiled.

  “If you don’t want to take on the position, we can try to find a way around it,” Mum said.

  “Are you kidding?” said Hazel. “Who else in all the realms is qualified for this? Until we can get the Sidhe to stop killing everything they see, I’m sticking with the position. It’d be nice if it was a voluntary thing, though. Just saying.”

  “I spent most of my childhood trying to find a way around the vow,” she said. “I’m sure most Gatekeepers before me did. In the end, peace comes with a cost. When that peace disappeared, in the invasion… it might be that something different is needed.”

  “The council wanted to speak to you,” I said. “They’re in Edinburgh. I guess you’ve been missing their messages because you’ve been in Faerie. Anyway, a bunch of them came up from England…”

  “And they’re probably breaking everything,” she said. “The English mages have no concept of subtlety.”

  “Have you ever met Lady Montgomery of the necromancer guild in Edinburgh?” I asked.

  “No,” she said. “I’ve heard of her.”

  “River’s mother,” said Hazel. “Ilsa’s hoping you’ll get along with his family. Seems a safer bet than his faerie side… his father isn’t terrible for a Sidhe, though.”

  Mum shook her head. “When did my children grow up?”

  “Aren’t you throwing me out?” Morgan blurted. “I could tell you all the terrible things I’ve done.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Mum shook her head. “Life is too short to waste at odds with those we love. Now the Sidhe’s magic no longer binds me, I intend to get to know my children a little better.”

  “You might be here a while,” said Morgan. “We’re very complicated.”

  “We’re also living in Edinburgh at the moment,” I added. “Well, two of us are.”

  Surprise suffused her features. “You joined the guild?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Since the book’s power mimics necromancy. Why didn’t you tell us we had necromancer ancestry?”

  Mum exhaled in a sigh. “It didn’t seem pertinent. Neither of you had manifested any signs of magical talent, and… I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

  No kidding. It was a selfish choice, but who was I to criticise? Morgan and I had both left home. Hazel had flaunted the rules on a consistent basis. And look how much trouble we’d managed to cause in her absence.

  “Did the Erlking send you to the Vale in person?” I asked.

  Mum nodded. “He did. I believe he was unaware of his wife’s intention of usurping the gate until long after he’d sent me away. But then Arden came to see me. He told me about my Aunt Enid’s magic and that the Winters were searching for its source, and he offered to guide the book to someone who would use it to protect our family and prevent Candice from using it against us. I had no idea its powers were so overwhelming and that it would put you in so much danger.” Her sad gaze passed over all of us. “When River came back to me with news that the book—the Ancient—had picked you as the host for its magic… I was horrified. I knew that the book would not relinquish its hold on you, but as long as the vow bound me, I couldn’t leave the Vale. Nor did I know that Arden remained connected to the Winter Gatekeeper even beyond death.”

  “But she didn’t know what he was, not at first,” I said. Not until we’d summoned him.

  Arden had saved us, in the end. The book had begun to glow in my pocket again, as though trying to get my attention. I gave it a brief glance, then turned back to my family. The talisman could wait.

  Hazel had left the Path to Edinburgh open, so the following morning, we walked out of the house onto the country lane. The illusion had reappeared as though it had never left, including the darker shape of the Winter Lynns’ forest behind the house. Holly hadn’t come to speak to us yet, but who knew, maybe she and Hazel would become friends when Hazel started the Gatekeeper trials for real.

  The country lane vanished as Hazel led us down the Path, onto Edinburgh’s cobbled street. I twisted to give her a look. “I knew Arden was messing with me by opening Paths halfway up Arthur’s Seat.”

  Hazel snorted. “Last time you climbed it willingly.”

  And now I had to relive the whole experience in front of the council. Frankly, I had no idea what to tell them. Parts of the story made little sense without mentioning the gods, the Erlking, or the real source of my magic. But the council had been put together to deal with threats exactly like the ones I’d faced. The former council, and countless Gatekeepers, had given their lives to protect secrets that weren’t theirs. Maybe I’d be the first to bring those secrets open into the light.

  The council room was more packed than last time, or maybe it was my nerves. Even Agnes and Everett were there. My chest tightened. Words had never come easily to me, like Hazel. Next to me, Ivy gave me an encouraging nod. Hazel stood on my other side. I wasn’t alone. I turned from the Mage Lords’ expectant faces to the crowd, and began my story.

  I didn’t tell them everything in the end. Truth was a necessity, but the Erlking’s talisman was a secret he kept to preserve his own Court, and wasn’t my secret to share. Summer’s gate, too, I glossed over, not wanting any necromancers to get ideas about summoning things from those dark dimensions. But I was fairly sure the most intelligent amongst the crowd could work out from the context that whatever had tried to get out of the gate was no faerie or Sidhe. As for the Winter Gatekeeper, Holly clearly hadn’t had an invitation. It’d take a while for the council to trust her side of the family again, but I made it clear that it wasn’t Holly’s fault that her mother had schemed with the outcasts.

  Ivy told some parts of the story. So did River. We’d barely got a moment alone, and when the council finally allowed us to sit down, I was tempted to grab him and pull him out of the room. Neither of us were official council members yet—if that ever happened. My head buzzed with residual nerves from putting myself out there, but speaking the truth was liberating in a way. The book decided to say its piece by glowing brightly in my pocket all through the meeting. Perhaps that was Arden’s contribution to the story. I kept the raven out of my account, partly out of respect for the dead, partly because I wanted to look into the past a little more before I made it public. I made out that the Winter Gatekeeper had returned using conventional necromancy and the outcasts’ help, leaving out the fact that she’d turned herself into a Sidhe. Her brief immortality attempt was overshadowed by what the Seelie Queen had done.

  When the meeting broke apart, Lady Montgomery came to thank me in person. Then the mages did. I was dizzy with remembering names and titles, let alone being scrutinised by a bunch of complete strangers. Hazel handled the whole thing better, but she’d been trained for it. And Mum, w
ho took over the story when words failed me, and told of the final battle from her own perspective.

  So now the entire mage council, plus a bunch of assorted high-ranking supernaturals, knew about the book. They knew what I could do. And they seemed to respect me for it.

  “Need a moment?” asked a voice from the side. Jas stood there, a high stack of note pages nearly masking her face. “I could fake a ghost attack to get you out of here for five minutes.”

  “It’s appreciated, but no thanks. Aren’t you allowed in?” I moved to the door, away from the crowd.

  “Nope. Not high-ranked enough. I wanted to hear your speech, but they soundproofed the doors.”

  “You got to skip the boring parts at least,” I said. “Where’s Lloyd?”

  “Saving my spot at the coffee shop the instant I get out of here.”

  “I like the way you think.” I didn’t know if the two of them were an item or not, but I had every intention of getting River somewhere alone the first chance I got. “Before I forget—what did you do in the battle? When you fought the wraiths? I’ve never seen you use necromancy like that before.” I’d been racking my brains trying to figure out where I’d seen the shimmering halo around her spirit form before, and seeing the Winter Gatekeeper’s army of the dead had reminded me that I’d barely scratched the surface when it came to true necromancy.

  When Jas blinked at me, a hint of wariness in her expression, I reached into my pocket, withdrawing the talisman for a moment. “I know all about unconventional magic, believe me. Just curious.”

  She smiled. “I bet you do. I know who to ask if I need help.” Her gaze went towards the crowds of other supernaturals—specifically, the witches, who crowded around in groups—and then the council.

  Ivy stepped in. “There you are,” she said. “Hiding from the crowd?”

  “Yep.” I glanced to the side, where Jas had performed an impressive disappearing act. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you something… can you read this?” I held up the book, revealing the new section which had appeared in the back. It contained a few words I couldn’t read, but I figured Ivy might be able to.